Time, replacements, and orphans.

I was just starting my apologetic reading this morning, which I’m behind on, when I saw Johnny D live streaming his morning sermon. Johnny D is a San Antonio pastor who used to (maybe still does) do some of the chapel sermons at Cornerstone Christian School and hosted a Bible study called the Anchor I went to for a while. I hadn’t listened to him preach for years, but I felt very compelled to have a listen. He was talking about the orphan heart, which can be a physical, spiritual or both ailment that keeps us from experiencing relationships correctly. Pretty good sermon- here’s my notes.

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Princes and Paupers – The Orphan Heart.

Sons with healthy relationships to their fathers do not say give me what is mine and leaves. The devil pulls us away from the path set by the Father/father. The Father directs us through our earthly followers. We can be saved and still be orphans – we can live under an orphan spirit.

Steps towards the orphan’s heart:

We begin to focus on the faults we see in parental authority. All it takes is a crack and then the devil has an entry point.

We perceive parental faults as discouragement, rejection. We feel like they don’t love us. But each child is a byproduct of their parents. Which ends up passing along these faults to other relationships. my mom/dad rejected/abandoned whatever it is negatively – it’s not malicious is that they don’t know better. It’s our choice on how to perceive the fault.

Lose basic trust in parental authority- li love you but you don’t have the opportunity to hurt me again like that (moving away).

We move into a fear if receiving love or admiration from others. It becomes a me vs everyone- we are not going to be loved or accepted. Creates us as isolated and rejected which is where the Devil wants us. We’re disconnected like he is disconnected from the father.

We develop a closed spirit- we stop receiving love and close our hearts to intimacy.

We take on an independent self-reliant attitude. Which works in certain avenues like business where God is being left out of the equation. We’re not allowing him to intervene or do the miraculous and we’re not casting our cares on him. We can’t believe he won’t intervene – 66 books of food falling from heaven, dead rising, axe heads floating etc. but in all these cases God was asked to intervene.

Our relationships become superficial0 fear of rejection and intimacy keep us alone and we reject others how we perceive we were rejected

We develop an ungodly believe that tells us no one will be there to meet our needs. The church, wife/husband, kids, aren’t here for me. We’re afraid to be a dependent on them because we know what it’s like to have them fail.

If we’re questioning why others got this position or that recognition- this is a symptom of the orphan heart. We’re measuring our failures.

We begin chasing counterfeit affections- having shut ourselves off from genuine affection we look to passions, positions, performance, people, place, and power. This also happens to Christians. We replace God with these things. You can be passionate about your ministry to the point where the passion for ministry replaces God in your heart. That fulfills you rather than God. The same thing can happen with pride in a position (such as pride of being a pastor elevating you). -its wrong when the things are replacing God, addictions, food, drinking, etc. if theyre holding a place of comfort then theyre replacing God. Needing comfort should drive you to God).

Begin to daily battle a stronghold of oppression- daily we fight with bitterness, tension, anger, frustration etc. because we’ve put other things in the positions that your earthly/heavenly fathers should be filling. (so far under that there’s no light. Battling down in the depths).

When our orphan identity fails we have nothing else. If we have Christ we call onto Christ. The orphan spirit keeps us from having God to catch us.

God is in our corner because He believes in us.

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I missed a few points due to either his internet or mine, but what I really began to think about was time. When Johnny was talking about things replace God. Time is really how you can judge that. What time is God getting vs time things are getting. It’s the resource that everyone has and needs more of but is always escaping. My last day at the bank was Friday. The overtime is over, the 40 hours a week is over and I have time. I didn’t have time during that life. I know why God made me leave. Thinking about it today, when you consider my weekdays were filled with work, I did overtime Saturdays, and did homework all day Sunday – there was little time dedicated to God. Homework about Christianity (apologetics) is not the same as communion with God. A relationship needs communion; you need to spend time. A relationship without time is a plant without water. It will wither and fade and you have to give it the water before it expires entirely. I’m not completely sure what comes next. But I’m looking forward to time.